Archive for the ‘roy oswalt’ tag

Last year, with my excitement over Washington’s Dan Haren signing and my supposition that Washington had the best rotation in the game, I ranked all 30 team’s rotations ahead of the 2013 season. Then, after the season was done, I revisited these pre-season rankings with a post-mortem to see how close (or, more appropriately, how far off) my rankings turned out to be.

Here’s the 2014 version of this same post: Pre-season rankings of the MLB’s rotations; 1 through 30. Warning; this is another huge post. I guess I’m just verbose. At this point midway through Spring Training there’s just a couple of possible FAs left that could have altered these rankings (Ervin Santana being the important name unsigned right now), so I thought it was time to publish.

The top teams are easy to guess; once you get into the 20s, it becomes pretty difficult to distinguish between these teams. Nonetheless, here we go (I heavily depended on baseball-reference.com and mlbdepthcharts.com for this post, along with ESPN’s transaction list per team and Baseball Prospectus’ injury reports for individual players).

Scherzer’s dominant Cy Young season brings the Tigers to the top. Photo AP Photo/Paul Sancya

In January, after most of marquee FA signings had shaken out, I ranked the 2013 rotations of teams 1-30. I was excited about the Nats rotation, speculated more than once that we had the best rotation in the league, and wanted to make a case for it by stacking up the teams 1-30.

I thought it’d be an interesting exercise to revisit my rankings now that the season is over with a hindsight view, doing some post-mortem analysis and tacking on some advanced metrics to try to quantify who really performed the best this season. For advanced metrics I’m leaning heavily on Fangraphs team starter stats page, whose Dashboard view quickly gives the team ERA, FIP, xFIP, WAR, SIERA, K/9 and other key stats that I’ll use in this posting.

(#2 pre-season) Detroit: Verlander, Fister, Sanchez, Scherzer, Porcello (with Alvarez providing some cover). Scherzer likely wins the Cy Young. Three guys with 200+ strikeouts. The league leader in ERA. And we havn’t even mentioned Justin Verlander yet. A team starting pitching fWAR of 25.3, which dwarfed the next closest competitor. There’s no question; we knew Detroit’s rotation was going to be good, but not this good. Here’s a scary fact; their rotation BABIP was .307, so in reality this group should have done even better than they actually did. Detroit’s rotation was *easily* the best rotation in the league and all 6 of these guys return for 2014.

(#3 Preseason): Los Angeles Dodgers: Kershaw, Greinke, Ryu, Nolasco, and Capuano (with Fife, Beckett, Lilly, Billingsley and a few others helping out); The 1-2 punch of Kershaw (the NL’s clear Cy Young favorite) and Greinke (who quietly went 15-4) was augmented by the stand-out rookie performance of Ryu, the surprisingly good half-season worth of starts from Nolasco, and then the all-hands-on deck approach for the rest of the starts. This team used 11 different starters on the year thanks to injury and ineffectiveness, but still posted the 2nd best team FIP and 5th best fWAR in the league.

(#8 pre-season): St. Louis: Wainwright, Lynn, Miller, Wacha and Kelly (with Garcia, Westbrook, and a few others pitching in). Team leader Chris Carpenter missed the whole season and this team still was one of the best rotations in the league. Westbrook missed time, Garcia only gave them 9 starts. That’s the team’s planned #1, #3 and #4 starters. What happened? They call up Miller and he’s fantastic. They call up Wacha and he nearly pitches back to back no-hitters at the end of the season. They give Kelly a starting nod out of the bullpen and he delivers with a better ERA+ than any of them from the #5 spot. St. Louis remains the bearer-standard of pitching development (along with Tampa and Oakland to an extent) in the game.

(#22 pre-season): Pittsburgh: Liriano, Burnett, Locke, Cole, Morton (with Rodriguez and a slew of call-ups helping out). How did this team, which I thought was so low pre-season, turn out to have the 4th best starter FIP in the game? Francisco Liriano had a renessaince season, Burnett continued to make Yankees fans shake their heads, and their top 6 starters (by number of starts) all maintained sub 4.00 ERAs. Gerrit Cole has turned out to be the real deal and will be a force in this league.

(#1 pre-season) Washington: Strasburg, Gonzalez, Zimmermann, Haren, Detwiler with Jordan, Roark and other starts thrown to Karns and Ohlendorf). Despite Haren’s continued attempts to sabotage this rotation’s mojo, they still finished 3rd in xFIP and 5th in FIP. Haren’s 11-19 team record and substandard ERA/FIP values drug this group down, but there wasn’t much further up they could have gone on this list. If you had replaced Haren with a full season of Jordan’s production, maybe this team jumps up a little bit, but the teams above them are tough to beat.

(#11 pre-season) Atlanta: Hudson, Medlen, Minor, Teheranand Maholm, (with rookie Alex Wood contributing towards the end of the season). Brandon Beachy only gave them 5 starts; had he replaced Maholm this rotation could have done better. Hudson went down with an awful looking injury but was ably covered for by Wood. They head into 2014 with a relatively formidable and cheap potential rotation of Medlen, Minor, Teheran, Beachy and Wood, assuming they don’t resign Hudson. How did they over-perform? Teheran finally figured it out, Maholm was more than servicable the first couple months, Wood was great and came out of nowhere.

(#26 pre-season) Cleveland: Jimenez, Masterson, McAllister, Kluber, Kazmir. Too high for this group? 7th in rotation fWAR, 8th in FIP, and 6th in xFIP. This group, which I thought was going to be among the worst in the league, turned out to be one of the best. Jimenez and Masterson both had rebound years with a ton of Ks, and the rest of this crew pitches well enough to remain around league average. They were 2nd best in the league in K/9. You can make the argument that they benefitted from the weakened AL Central, but they still made the playoffs with a relative rag-tag bunch.

(#9 pre-season) Cincinnati: Cueto, Latos, Bailey, Arroyo, Leake (with Tony Cingrani). Cueto was good … but he was never healthy, hitting the D/L three separate times. Luckily Cingrani came up from setting strikeout records in AAA and kept mowing them down in the majors. Latos was dominant, Leake took a step forward, and Bailey/Arroyo gave what they normally do. If anything you would have thought this group would have been better. 6th in Wins, 7th in xFIP, 9th in FIP. Next year Arroyo leaves, Cingrani gets 32 starts, Cueto stays healthy (cross your fingers, cross your fingers, cross your fingers) and this team is dominant again despite their FA hitting losses.

(#25 pre-season) New York Mets: Harvey, Wheeler, Niese, Gee, Hefner and a bunch of effective call-ups turned the Mets into a halfway-decent rotation all in all. 7th in xFIP, 11th in FIP. Most of this is on the backs of Matt Harvey, who pitched like the second coming of Walter Johnson for most of the season. Wheeler was more than effective, and rotation workhorses Niese and Gee may not be sexy names, but they were hovering right around the 100 ERA+ mark all year. One superstar plus 4 league average guys was good enough for the 9th best rotation.

(#12 pre-season) Texas: Darvish, Holland, Ogando, Perez, Garza at the end. Texas’ fWAR was the 2nd best in the league … but their accompanying stats drag them down this far. Despite having four starters with ERA+s ranging from 114 to Darvish’ 145, the 34 starts given to Tepesch and Grimm drag this rotation down. Ogando couldn’t stay healthy and Perez only gave them 20 starts. Garza was mostly a bust. And presumed #2 starter Matt Harrison gave them just 2 starts. But look out for this group in 2014; Darvish, a healthy Harrison, and Holland all locked up long term, Ogando in his first arbitration year, and Perez is just 22. That’s a formidable group if they can stay on the field together.

(pre-season #6) Tampa Bay: Price, Moore, Hellickson, Cobb, Archer and Roberto Hernandez. Jeff Niemann didn’t give them a 2013 start, but no matter, the Tampa Bay gravy train of power pitchers kept on producing. Cobb was unhittable, Archer was effective and Moore regained his 2011 playoff mojo to finish 17-4 on the year. An odd regression from Price, which was fixed by a quick D/L trip, and a complete collapse of Hellickson drug down this rotation from where it should have been. They still finished 12th in FIP and xFIP for the year.

(pre-season #21) Seattle: Hernandez, Iwakuma, Saunders, Harang, Maurer, and Ramirez.Seattle featured two excellent, ace-leve performers and a bunch of guys who pitched worse than Dan Haren all year. But combined together and you have about the 12th best rotation, believe it or not.

(pre-season #7) Philadelphia: Halladay, Hamels, Lee, Kendrick, Lannan (with Cloyd and Pettibone as backups). The phillies were 13th in xFIP, 10th in FIP on the year and regressed slightly thanks to the significant demise to their #1 guy Halladay. Lee pitched like his typical Ace but Hamels self-destructed as well. The strength of one excellent starter makes this a mid-ranked rotation. Had Halladay and Hamels pitched like expected, they’d have finished closer to my pre-season ranking.

(pre-season #17) Boston: Lester, Buchholz, Dempster, Lackey,Doubront, and Peavy: Boston got a surprise bounce back season out of Lackey, a fantastic if oft-injured performance from Buchholz, a mid-season trade for the effective Peavy. Why aren’t they higher? Because their home stadium contributes to their high ERAs in general. Despite being 3rd in rotation fWAR and 4th in wins, this group was 17th in FIP and 18th in xFIP. Perhaps you could argue they belong a couple places higher, but everyone knows its Boston’s offense that is driving their success this year.

(pre-season #16) New York Yankees: Sabathia, Kuroda, Pettitte, Nova, Hughes/Phelps. Hughes and Phelps pitched as predictably bad as you would have expected … but Sabathia’s downturn was unexpected. Are his years of being a workhorse catching up to him? The rotation was buoyed by unexpectedly good seasons from Nova and Kuroda. Pettitte’s swang song was pretty great, considering his age. Enough for them to slightly beat expectations, but the signs of trouble are here for this rotation in the future. Pettitee retired, Kuroda a FA, Hughes a FA, a lost season for prospect Michael Pineda and other Yankees prospects stalled. Are we in for a dark period in the Bronx?

(pre-season #29) Miami: Fernandez, Nolasco, Eovaldi, Turner, Alvarez,Koehler and a few other starts given to either re-treads or MLFAs. For Miami’s rotation of kids to rise this far up is amazing; looking at their stellar stats you would think they should have been higher ranked still. Fernandez’s amazing 176 ERA+ should win him the Rookie of the Year. Eovaldi improved, rookie Turner pitched pretty well for a 22 year old. The team dumped its opening day starter Nolasco and kept on … losing frankly, because the offense was so durn bad. Begrudgingly it looks like Jeffry Loria has found himself another slew of great arms to build on.

(pre-season #5) San Francisco: Cain, Lincecum, Bumgarner, Vogelsong, Zito, Gaudin.What the heck happened here? Cain went from an Ace to pitching like a 5th starter, Lincecum continued to completely forget what it was like to pitch like a Cy Young winner, Vogelsong completely fell off his fairy-tale cliff, and Zito completed his $126M journey in typical 5+ ERA fashion. I’m surprised these guys are ranked this high (14th in FIP, 16th in xFIP but just 27th in fWAR thanks to just horrible performances all year). What the heck are they going to do in 2014?

(pre-season #10) Arizona: Corbin, Kennedy, McCarthy, Cahill, Miley and Delgado. Corbin was 2013’s version of Miley; a rookie that came out of nowhere to lead the staff. Miley struggled at times but righted the ship and pitched decently enough. The rest of the staff really struggled. I thought this was a solid bunch but they ended up ranked 23rd in FIP and 14th in xFIP, indicating that they were a bit unlucky as a group.

(pre-season #15) Chicago White Sox: Sale, Peavy, Danks, Quintana, Santiago and Axelrod. Floyd went down early, Peavy was traded. Sale pitched well but had a losing record. The team looked good on paper (16th in ERA) but were 26th in FIP and 17th in xFIP.

(pre-season #14) Oakland: Colon, Anderson, Griffen, Parker, Straily, Milone, with Sonny Gray giving 10 good starts down the stretch. This rotation is the story of one amazing 40-yr old and a bunch of kids who I thought were going to be better. Oakland is bashing their way to success this season and this group has been just good enough to keep them going. I thought the likes of Griffen and Parker would have been better this year, hence their falling from #14 to #19.

(pre-season #19) Chicago Cubs: Garza, Samardzija, Jackson, Wood, and Feldman: Feldman and Garza were flipped once they showed they could be good this year. Samardzija took an uncharacteristic step backwards. Jackson was awful. The Cubs ended up right about where we thought they’d be. However in 2014 they look to be much lower unless some big-armed prospects make the team.

(pre-season #20) Kansas City: Shields, Guthrie, Santana, Davis, Chen, Mendoza: despite trading the best prospect in the game to acquire Shields and Davis, the Royals a) did not make the playoffs and b) really didn’t have that impressive a rotation. 12th in team ERA but 20th in FIP and 25th in xFIP. Compare that to their rankings of 25th in FIP and 26th in xFIP in 2012. But the results on the field are inarguable; the team improved 14 games in the Win column and should be a good bet to make the playoffs next year if they can replace the possibly-departing Santana and the ineffective Davis.

(pre-season #23) Milwaukee: Lohse, Gallardo, Estrada, Peralta, and dozens of starts given to long-men and call-ups. I ranked this squad #23 pre-season before they acquired Lohse; in reality despite his pay and the lost draft pick, Lohse’s addition ended up … having almost no impact on this team in 2013. They finished ranked 23rd on my list, and the team was 74-88.

(pre-season #13): Los Angeles Angels: Weaver, Wilson, Vargas, Hanson, Blanton,Williams: The Angels are in a predicament; their two “aces” Weaver and Wilson both pitched well enough. But nobody in baseball was really that surprised by the god-awful performances from Hanson or Blanton (2-14, 6.04 ERA … and the Angels gave him a two year deal!). So in some ways the team brought this on themselves. You spend half a billion dollars on aging offensive FAs, have the best player in the game languishing in left field because your manager stubbornly thinks that someone else is better in center than one of the best defenders in the game … not fun times in Anaheim. To make matters worse, your bigtime Ace Weaver missed a bunch of starts, looked mortal, and lost velocity.

(#28 pre-season) San Diego: Volquez, Richards, Marquis, Stults, Ross, Cashner: have you ever seen an opening day starter post a 6+ ERA in a cave of a field and get relased before the season was over? That happened to SAn Diego this year. Another case where ERA+ values are deceiving; Stults posted a sub 4.00 ERA but his ERA+ was just 87, thanks to his home ballpark. In fact its almost impossible to tell just how good or bad San Diego pitchers are. I could be talked in to putting them this high or all the way down to about #28 in the rankings.

(pre-season #27) Colorado: Chatwood, De La Rosa, Chacin, Nicaso, Francis and a few starts for Garland and Oswalt for good measure. Another staff who shows how deceptive the ERA+ value can be. Their top guys posted 125 ERA+ figures but as a whole their staff performed badly. 26th in ERA, 19th in FIP, 26th in xFIP. Colorado is like Minnesota; they just don’t have guys who can throw it by you (29th in K/9 just ahead of the Twins), and in their ridiculous hitter’s park, that spells trouble.

(pre-season #4) Toronto: Dickey, Morrow, Johnson, Buehrle, Happ,Rogers, and a line of other guys. What happened here? This was supposed to be one of the best rotations in the majors. Instead they fell on their face, suffered a ton of injuries (only Dickey and Buehrle pitched full seasons: Romero, Drabeck were hurt. Johnson, Happ, Redmond only 14-16 starts each. This team even gave starts to Chien-Ming Wang and Ramon Ortiz. Why not call up Fernando Valenzuela out of retirement? It just goes to show; the best teams on paper sometimes don’t come together. The Nats disappointed in 2013, but probably not as much as the Blue Jays.

(pre-season #18) Baltimore: Hammel, Chen, Tillman, Gonzalez, Feldman, Garcia with a few starts given to Gausman and Britton. I’m not sure why I thought this group would be better than this; they were in the bottom four of the league in ERA, FIP, xFIP and SIERA. It just goes to show how the ERA+ value can be misleading. In their defense, they do pitch in a hitter’s park. Tillman wasn’t bad, Chen took a step back. The big concern here is the health of Dylan Bundy, who I thought could have pitched in the majors starting in June.

(pre-season #30) Houston: Bedard, Norris, Humber, Peacock, Harrell to start, then a parade of youngsters from there. We knew Houston was going to be bad. But amazingly their rotation wasn’t the worst in the league, thanks to Jarred Cosart and Brett Olberholtzer coming up and pitching lights-out for 10 starts a piece later in the year. There’s some potential talent here.

(pre-season #24) Minnesota: Diamond, Pelfrey, Correia, Denudo, Worley and a whole slew of guys who were equally as bad. Minnesota had the worst rotation in the league, and it wasn’t close. They were dead last in rotational ERA, FIP, and xFIP, and it wasn’t close. They were last in K/9 … by more than a strikeout per game. They got a total fWAR of 4.6 from every pitcher who started a game for them this year. Matt Harvey had a 6.1 fWAR in just 26 starts before he got hurt. Someone needs to call the Twins GM and tell him that its not the year 1920, that power-pitching is the wave of the future, that you need swing-and-miss guys to win games in this league.

Biggest Surprises: Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Miami and New York Mets to a certain extent.

Biggest Disappointments: Toronto, the Angels, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Baltimore to some extent.

Disagree with these rankings? Feel free to pipe up. I’ll use this ranking list as the spring board post-FA market for 2014’s pre-season rankings.

Courtesy of MinorLeagueBall.com’s John Sickels (who I’ve asked if he’s doing a player-by-player recap of this year’s draftees like he did last year, which I borrowed from for a good blog post last off-season, but have not heard back), here’s a posting with links to the blog BaseballInstinct, which has some good video of Lucas Giolito throwing during his time in the GCL earlier this month.

The videos are set to rather loud music, so hit mute if you’re at work or are annoyed by electronic/techno music.

The videos show POV from behind the catcher and then some from the side, have some MPH readings, have some slo-mo of Giolito’s mechanics for various pitches and at release points.

Observations/thoughts:

– He looks like a bigger kid than the photo above shows. He has a good pitcher build, big legs, big strong body. He’s listed as 6’6″ 230 so I’m not sure why I thought he was a little wiry kid.

– His motion looks like a cross between Cole Kimball with perhaps a little Roy Oswalt. When he lands, his shoulder tilt and arm position are almost identical to Kimball’s, while his arm flail in regular speed seems like a throwback to Oswalt.

– 92-93 reportedly on the gun in these videos; it was from earlier this month, early in his recovery from Tommy John surgery. But, this is a far cry from the reported upper 90s/100 he showed in high school (speeds per PerfectGame scouting reports). I’m hoping this was just from a very early game in his rehab and he was holding back.

– Is it just me, or is his curve ball incredibly telegraphed? His arm position seems way, way higher for his curve than it did for his fastball. That and his hand position seems to be very simple to pick up. We talked earlier this season about tipping pitches and I’m guessing this is something they’ll work on with Giolito. If an amateur like me can see a difference that distinct, then a professional certainly can too.

– Likewise, later in the video his trailing leg finish is incredibly inconsistent. Sometimes it comes across his body, sometimes he kicks the ground, sometimes it just trails behind. It seems like he may need some mechanical fine tuning. Does this make a difference in the pitch? It’s too late to be a pitch tipping mechanism and could be because he was throwing from the stretch/trying to slide step a bit.

– He gets an incredibly long push-off the rubber (see the side-action video later in the link). By the time he releases the ball, his foot is at least 12-15 inches in front of the rubber and his arm/release point has to be at least 7+ feet in front of the rubber. Study the video; he’s 6’6″ and he’s clearly further off the rubber than he is tall. We talk about how really tall pitchers (think Jon Rauch, Chris Young and Randy Johnson) get an advantage because they’re releasing the ball closer to home, so the pitch looks faster than it is. Giolito’s mechanics combined with his height give this same appearance. If you combine this long push-off and the reported velocity he can achieve … wow, that’s a heck of a combination. There’s no wonder that he was in the mix for 1-1 last year.

Any other thoughts? I know there are readers out there who discount this kid as a prospect. But I’ll say this; 10 shutout innings so far after being promoted to Short-A, which is basically a college league. He’s only 19 and is recovering from injury. If he starts next season in low-A before his 20th birthday and gets promoted up at some point, he’ll be well on his way to being one of the top prospects in baseball.

As always, I write the response here before reading his, and sometimes edit questions for clarity.

Q: Are you pleased with the Denard Span trade? Or do you think the Nats should have tried to sign Michael Bourn?

A: My thoughts are pretty clear on the Denard Span trade; in a sentence, I didn’t think we needed to make the trade, but the deal we struck was fair. If it comes down to Span versus Michael Bourn, there’s no question in my mind you go with Span; Bourn wants too much money, is older, they’re roughly equivalent in terms of UZR/150, and Bourn has lesser career batting stats (104 OPS+ career for Span versus 90 for Bourn). I think there’s a reason that BJ Upton signed and most teams with CF needs/wants have solved them (Phillies and Ben Revere, Giants and re-signing Angel Pagan, Braves and Upton, Nats and Span, etc) and Bourn still sits unsigned; he and his super-agent Scott Boras are over-valuing his services. Ladson says he likes Span for his contract and his age versus Bourn.

Q: Why are the Nats thinking about getting rid of a 30-homer, 100-RBI guy in Adam LaRoche?

A: First, lets be fair; the Nats are “not getting rid” of the Free Agent Adam LaRoche; he’s a free agent and can sign anywhere he chooses. Maybe LaRoche is tired of the humidity in Washington and wants to find a team closer to home. Maybe his wife really likes the Pacific Northwest and he’s looking to move to Seattle. Ok seriously; the problem with LaRoche is simply his age; yes he was 30/100 THIS year; what will he do next year? More importantly, what would he do 3 years from now when he’s 35 and earning $15M/year or so? That’s the risk in any FA contract for someone in his 30s, and these types of contracts have a tendency to add up and really hamstring your budgets. Just look at the Yankees and Phillies right now; think the Phillies wish they had about $50M in payroll flexibility to improve their .500 team? The team really doesn’t want to commit more than a couple years, but at LaRoche’s age this is really his last shot at a big-time, life altering guaranteed contract. He really needs to get as much guaranteed money as he can. If the Red Sox give him a 3year guaranteed contract, he really needs to take it. Ladson states the obvious; Nats offering 2 years, LaRoche wants 3.

Q: Who will be the Nats’ second baseman in 2013 — Danny Espinosa or Steve Lombardozzi?

A: Danny Espinosa. The team showed patience waiting for Ian Desmond to turn it around and seem likely to do the same with Espinosa. Now, if it were me, I wouldn’t mind cashing in Espinosa’s defensive stature and 20-home run prowness and shed his 190Ks/season to obtain some farm system depth and just live with Steve Lombardozzi playing 2nd and batting 8th, but there’s really no reason to do that right now. Espinosa is at MLB minimum and may make the leap; and Lombardozzi may really just be a utility/backup infielder type. Ladson predicts a gold glove and an All-Star appearance for Espinosa. That made me chuckle. He’s very optimistic.

Q: What does the Span trade mean for the future of Tyler Moore? Moore has good pop and belongs in the everyday lineup.

A: Well, clearly the Span acquisition means that Tyler Moore is at best looking at another season of backup at-bats. What is more important to Moore is what happens with LaRoche/Michael Morse. Because those are the blockers to Moore getting actual playing time right now. Moore’s production last season was great for a first year guy; .840 OPS, 124 OPS+, a 22 home run full season pace. He hit righties better than lefties, which fares well for his maturation as a hitter. But there’s just no room for him right now. I suspect he may be trade bait if the team signs LaRoche to a 3year deal, just as Morse will be. Ladson states the obvious; Moore will come off the bench this year.

Q: Who will be the Nationals’ starting catcher on Opening Day?

A: Great question. I’d go with Kurt Suzuki for now, until hearing how Wilson Ramos‘ recovery is going. Remember, Ramos had to have two knee surgeries last summer; I don’t think its a guarantee that he’s ready opening day. Ladson agrees, saying the team is taking it slow w/ Ramos.

Q: Do you think Michael Morse is a defensive liability in the outfield? If LaRoche signs with the Nats, what impact will that have on Morse?

A: Yes he’s a defensive liability in LF. But I don’t mind having a 30 homer defensive liability in left. But I’m not the GM of the Nationals who seems dead set on replacing all sub-par defenders on his roster. If LaRoche signs, it pretty clearly means an imminent trade of Morse, since it makes little sense to have his bat sitting in a backup capacity. Ladson doesn’t think he’s as big of a liability in LF as I do, pointing out that Morse seemed like he was playing hurt at the end of the season.

Q: What will the Nats do with Chien-Ming Wang?

A: Nothing. Chien-Ming Wang is a free agent and can sign anywhere he wants. If the Nats give him another dollar of guaranteed money I’ll be furious. Ladson says he’s not coming back and may not sign til mid-season, ala Roy Oswalt.

Opening day is upon us. Why not put in some quickie predictions on who makes the playoffs this year?

AL East: New York Yankees

AL Central: Detroit

AL West: Los Angeles Angels

AL Wild Cards: Tampa, Texas

Narrative: I think the Yankees have enough to win the East; they have the same offense and seem to have improved their starting pitching. Detroit should more or less cruise to the Central title; perhaps Minnesota could scare them for a wh ile but they have almost no quality starting pitching and Mauer and Morneau are not exactly health guarantees. I think the Angels have bought their way into an AL West title, but wouldn’t be surprised if it came down to the wire.

Wild Cards: I think Texas (or LA) easily qualifies for a wild card, given the number of games both teams will have against their incredibly weaker divisional rivals Seattle and Oakland. Meanwhile, Tampa seems to be in far better position than anyone else in the AL; they’re going to be tough to beat night to night because of pitching. Meanwhile Boston seems adrift; they went from a 2011 wild-card shoe-in to an off-season punchline within one series in Baltimore. They have done almost nothing to improve and have made a few puzzling moves in the off-season.

How about the NL?

NL East: Philadelphia

NL Central: Milwaukee

NL West: San Francisco

NL Wild Cards: Atlanta, Cincinnati

Narrative: Despite Philadelphia’s injuries on offense, they still have the class starting pitching and don’t seem to be taking that big a step back by depending on Worley to replace Oswalt‘s innings. They don’t win 100 games, but they’ll eke out a divisional title. The NL Central may be the most interesting race of any division; who knows how the losses that Milwaukee and St. Louis have absorbed versus the gains of Cincinnati may play out. For now I’m guessing that all three teams end up in the 86-88 win range, but Milwaukee’s superior pitching and still-good offense win out. In the west, its hard to imagine San Francisco faltering again, but we’ll see. I know Arizona won comfortably last year, but they’re putting an awful lot of faith in two relatively weak starters (Saunders and Collmenter).

Wild Cards: I just can’t pick against Atlanta; they mostly have stood pat but they should have been the WC last year. Based on Washington’s lack of addressing their own offensive needs in the off-season plus all the injuries we’ve had so far this spring, its real tough to suddenly give this team 10 more wins. I think Cincinnati may sneak into the 2nd wild card ahead of a team like Arizona or Washington by virtue of a few more games against weakened NL central competition (Chicago and Houston).

Remember this guy? He’ll be 100% for next spring and may spell a changing of the guard in the division. Photo via AllansGraphics.com

With major moves being made this off-season for the rotations of the NL East teams, we seem set to be in store for some serious pitching duels intradivision in 2012. How do the rotations stack up, right now? If the season started tomorrow, here’s what we’d be looking at for rotations:

Philadelphia

Atlanta

Miami

Washington

New York

#1

Halladay

Hudson

Johnson

Strasburg

Santana?

#2

Lee

Jurrjens

Buehrle

Gonzalez

Dickey

#3

Hamels

Hanson

Sanchez

Zimmermann

Pelfrey

#4

Worley

Beachy

Nolasco

Jackson

Niese

#5

Pineiro

Delgado

Zambrano

Wang

Gee

In the mix

Blanton, Kendrick, Willis?

Minor, Teheran

Vazquez?Volstad, LeBlanc

Lannan, Detwiler, Gorzelanny

Young? Schwinden?

By team, some observations:

Philadelphiaplans on replacing Roy Oswalt‘s 2011 starts with a call-up who looked pretty good last year in Worley. Joe Blanton looks like the odd-man out and his $8.5M salary may be wasted by virtue of an underrated but saavy acquisition of Joel Pineiro. The Oswalt trade didn’t give the team what it seeked (a World Series title) but it didn’t cost them a ton in prospects either (JA Happ didn’t exactly light it up for Houston). They’ve signed Dontrelle Willis for rotation depth. Still, you can’t argue with three Cy Young candidates at the top of your rotation, and this team remains the team to beat in the division despite injuries (Ryan Howard) and aging (every single projected starter not named Hunter Pence is 30 or older, and Pence will be 29). The pitching staff was #1 in ERA in the NL and I can’t imagine them dropping far from that. If Worley performs like he did in 2011, and if Pineiro returns to his St. Louis form, then this is just as tough a 1-5 as last year.

Atlantashould have won the wild card last year and seems set to roll out a rather similar rotation this year. They’ll replace their worst starter Derek Lowe with starts from one of three up-and-coming rookies (I’ve got Delgado slated there now but likely Mike Minor wins the #5 spot in spring training) and should be improved. Hudson is a year older and hasn’t missed a start in 2 years, but is slow coming back from off-season back surgery and may or may not be ready for opeing day. The staff was #4 in the NL in team ERA and should do nothing but improve … but there’s some serious injury question marks. Their incredible SP minor league depth should get them through.

Miamihas a some major question marks, despite acquiring Mark Buehrle to slot into their #2 spot. They will cross their fingers on Josh Johnson; if he’s not healthy this team will be really hurt. Nolasco can be brilliant or awful from start to start. We still don’t know if Vazquez is retiring or returning; my initial guess would have been that he was too good in 2011 (3.69 era, 106 era+) and too young (reportedly 34 but i’ve never heard of any age-questioning here) to retire. To provide cover though, the team traded for the volatile but possibly still talented Carlos Zambrano to slot in at #5. Which Zambrano will they get? And will his notorious clubhouse antics gibe with new hot-head manager Ozzie Guillen? On paper, a 1-5 of Johnson, Buehrle, Nolasco, Sanchez and Zambrano spells an awful lot of power and a lot of Ks. They could be tough. They should improve on last year’s #10 team ERA ranking.

Washington just got a lot better, replacing 29 mostly awful Livan Hernandez starts with a healthy Stephen Strasburg and likewise replacing 35 combined mediocre starts out of Jason Marquis and Tom Gorzelanny with newly acquired power lefty Gio Gonzalezand power rightyEdwin Jackson. They were 6th in the NL in team ERA, have mostly the same bullpen in place (5th best in the league in ERA in 2011) and seem set to improve. Chien-Ming Wang seems set for the #5 spot, leaving John Lannan potentially being the most expensive pitcher in Syracuse. The jeopardy the team now has is an utter lack of starting pitching depth; Peacock and Milone WERE our 2012 rotational safety nets; now we have just Detwiler, Gorzelanny and a couple guys who clearly seem to be AAA starters. For this reason the team probably keeps Lannan around with the eventual goal of having him provide cover until our next wave of high-end pitching prospects develop. Either way, this rotation and bullpen look to be improved from 2011.

New York faces a grim 2012, not only in the rotation but also in the front office. We’re hearing reports that Johan Santana is still too hurt to make opening day (though he’s since spelled some of these concerns with his first spring training outing). Converted knuckleballer R.A. Dickeyspent his off-season ina nasty fight with management over his charity climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro. All their other starters posted ERAs in the mid to upper 4’s (or worse) with ERA+ figures in the 78-82 range. And there doesn’t seem to be help coming on the Free Agency front (since the team can’t afford to keep operations running without bank loans) or on the prospect front (a quick glance at their AAA and AA starting talent resulted in ONE starter who had a minor league era in the respectable range, an 18th rounder in AA). I think this team is finishing dead last in 2012 and may lose 100 games despite their payroll. And to add insult to injury, the owners were just forced to cough up $83 million in a pre-trial settlement over their Madhoff scandal involvement. Tough times are ahead for the Mets.

What do you guys think? In terms of Washington, more than a few pundits have stated that the addition of Gonzalez makes the Nats a wild card contender, right now, and that was before the Jackson move finally brought some plaudits from typically cynical national baseball writers when considering signings by this franchise.

Do you think the Nats have now supplanted the Braves as having the 2nd best rotation in the division (as ESPN’s Buster Olney is opining?) I think they have; I think Atlanta’s starters may be taking a slight step back while our quintet looks to be a solid, young but relatively experienced core.

Will the team extend Zimmerman, now that Fielder is off the table? Photo AP via tbd.com

This is your semi-weekly/periodic wrap-up of Nats and other baseball news that caught my eye. I try to publish this about weekly or if it gets up to about 1500 words, so that it’s not to voluminous.

Nationals In General

Nats continue to talk about a contract extension with Ryan Zimmerman, according to this and other sources. I’m not arguing against re-signing him; in fact he’ll be at a discount by virtue of missing so much time last season and being relatively injury-ridden as of late. The question is whether Zimmerman’s camp would accept anything less than what Troy Tulowitzki got (10/$157M) or Ryan Braun (13/$150M between current and extension contracts) signed. Here’s a case against re-signing him (though to be fair, the same blog posted a “case-for” earlier). Lastly on the topic; this fangraphs.com article looking for a good comparable for Zimmerman based on his production and value (the answer? Matt Kemp‘s 8yr/$160M deal).

Nats miss out on Prince Fielder, as he signs a 9yr, $214M deal with Detroit. Quick hit thoughts: Thank god there’s no more rumors about Fielder to the Nats. I wanted him and his bat, but not at that price and for that length. The team dodges an albatross of a contract in a few years time. Lastly; how in the world is Detroit going to manage that payroll? Its not as if that city is an up-and-coming, wealthy place. Makes you wonder just how well-off these baseball owners really are.

I guess FA rumors are just meant to be with this team; suddenly we’re in the Roy Oswalt mix. Now, I’ve said in the past that I like this guy and think he’d be a great fit for the team … but that was before we traded the farm for Gio Gonzalez and offered arbitration to John Lannan. I’ll ask a simple question; if we sign Oswalt, who makes way? Last time i checked this team has 5 starters, each signed for 2012 and each with a multi-million dollar commitment. So this rumor doesn’t make any sense any longer. Oswalt makes a ton more sense for a team like Texas or Boston, as is noted in the many columns on the subject posted recently.

LOVE the Brad Lidgeacquisition. The team needed a middle relief replacement for Todd Coffey and just got one, and for almost no money ($1M base with incentives). He’s struggled with his health, but when he has been healthy he’s been lights out for the last two seasons (not to mention the rest of his career). He can close in a pinch, he can help offload high-leverage innings off of Tyler Clippard. And he can mentor the bullpen guys. Fantastic signing by Mike Rizzo.

Nats will play Georgetown U in an exhibition for the 2nd year running. Knowing how weak Georgetown’s program is, I wonder just how badly the scoreline will look (last year’s score was 15-0).

MLB daily dish is attempting to replicate the Big Board and throw in contract details at this site here. We’ll see how uptodate this site is kept during the turbulent season of player movement in the minors.

Free Agents/Player Transaction News

Jamie Moyer signs a minor league deal with Colorado. He sits at 267 wins for his career, so the chances of him getting to 300 are relatively slim, but his chances of making Colorado’s rotation aren’t too bad. Roto World lists their depth chart right now at Chacin, Hammel, Pomeranz, White and Moscoso. Lots of youth there; White and Pomeranz are both 22-23 and were both relatively awful last year. De La Rosa is coming off injury but may not be ready for opening day. He very well could feature for this team in 2012.

General Baseball News

Yes I know these “top 5 lists” are mostly national columnists fulfilling writing requirements during the slow January baseball news period, but if the Nats are listed, i’ll post it. David Schoenfield lists his “Top 5 rotations” in the game and he goes Philly, Angels, Texas, New York and Arizona. I gotta say; i think he’s vastly overrating the Yankees rotation and I think he’s overrating the Arizona crew as well. Arizona’s pitchers were more or less awful in last year’s NLDS; not sure I’d count on them in a pinch. I’d easily put Tampa Bay and San Francisco’s rotations above these two teams, not to mention the possibility of Atlanta’s group gelling and helping that team win 95 games.

Marlins apparently ready to sign up for Showtime’s the Franchise, which featured San Francisco last year and was Showtime’s answer to HBO’s Hard Knocks football weekly documentary. The show was great in 2011, showing the human side of many of the Giants players and was a must-watch in my house. Of course, showing Miami could be an interesting endeavor; most of the baseball industry speaks badly about Miami’s ownership and senior management group and these documentary shows usually go to great lengths to humanize and gain empathy for all the participants.

Jose Bautista claims to have been “random drug tested” 16 times in the past two years, despite any single player’s chances of being randomly tested only being about 3 times in two years (according to the number of tests MLB is authorized to run versus the number of pro players). As is noted in the link, it looks to me like MLB is taking no more chances with its big home-run hitters.

Collegiate/Prospect News

First College top 25 posted by Baseball America (more discussion on each team here), and there’s no surprise who’s #1: Florida by virtue of its absolutely stacked lineup (two first team and two 2nd team pre-season all americans by this publication). No surprise Stanford is #2 behind their presumptive 2012 #1 overall pick Mark Appel, but surprised that Texas and Texas A&M are so low. I think by the time the CWS rolls around we’ll be seeing these teams, plus South Carolina back in the mix behind their returning friday and saturday starters.

The great Kevin Goldstein unveils his top 20 Nationals prospects on Baseball Prospectus. We all know who went the other way in the Gio Gonzalez trade; what’s more interesting is who now resides in places 16-20. Clearly he has to struggle to find “prospects” worthy of ranking there, based on his inclusion of Jason Martinson, Matt Skole, Sandy Leon, and David Freitas. Otherwise the top 12 or so reads as expected.

MLB’s Jonathan Mayo announces their top 100 for the whole game. Bryce Harper #2 behind Matt Moore; no argument there. Surprised Mike Trout didn’t get more credit. Most scouting pundits consider the big 4 (to include Atlanta’s Julio Teheran) as almost interchangeable. The rest of the top 10 are well known; I’d never heard of #7 Jurickson Profar, a shortstop in Texas’ organization who is really young but really promising. Other thoughts: surprised to see Danny Hultzen so high; I know he was dominant in college but is he slated to be that dominant in the pros? Other Nats/ex-Nats on the list: Anthony Rendon at #27, Brad Peacock at #75, Alex Meyer at #83, Sammy Solis at #86, AJ Cole at #88. No mention of Matthew Purke, but no surprise; he needs to have a healthy, strong season to regain his former 1-1 status.

Those of you who know me may know that i’m also a pretty passionate Soccer fan. So here’s a fantastic look at the history of soccer through an “All-time fantasy soccer player draft.” The first round was rather surprising; I know Lionel Messi is a great player now, but he’s got a bit of work before he supplants Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo or even Zidane in my book. Of course, he’s already a 3-time world player of the year at the tender age of 24, so by the time he retires he may very well have 3 more awards. Still, the selections (especially from the non-US based journalists who have a better sense of soccer’s history) are a great read.

Speaking of soccer, here’s a Grantland article on the conventional wisdom among most American fans that Soccer is boring. I’ve tired of trying to argue this point with people who have never actually SEEN a live soccer game. I have a good friend, born and bred in Pittsburgh and who is a die hard Steeler’s fan (in other words, the complete anti-thesis of a typical soccer fan) who I drug to a US Men’s national team game at RFK about 15 years ago. He fell in love and now follows the european game with similar gusto as I. I think American sports fans are too impatient, and have been even before the rise of cell-phones, the red-zone channel and highlight shows, to appreciate the beauty of Soccer. They devolve the game, without really having any personal experience watching a big match or seeing one in person, into the common phrase, “how exciting can a 1-0 game be?” I’d say to that; imagine a professional football game where there was no field goals allowed, the end zone was only 24 feet wide and there was a player positioned at that end zone at all times whose sole job it was to stop break away runs and passes. Its simply that much tougher to score. So most soccer fans know that the excitement of the game is the tactics, the breakdown of individual skill of the attacker versus the individual skill of the goalkeeper, and the near miss.

This is your semi-weekly/periodic wrap-up of Nats and other baseball news that caught my eye. No better time than today to publish, since there’s not much else going on Christmas day.

Nationals In General

Bus Leagues Baseball profiles Matthew Purke, with a nice scouting report and recap of his journey to the Nats franchise.

Nice little bench move here: Nats claimed infielder Carlos Rivera from Philadelphia’s waivers and stuck him on the 40-man. He theoretically can play both SS and 3b, though reports are that his SS defense is suspect. I’m not going to nit pick moves like this and the Mike Cameron signing; our farm system kind of has a gap in terms of player development from the last Bowden draft years, so we are missing these roster-augmentation players that otherwise would be filled from within. Soon though with the college-heavy drafts of the past couple years we should have all the spare parts we need sitting in AAA so that we’re not signing mid 30’s utility players and claiming mediocre players.

Welcome to 2012’s version of Jerry Hairston; Mark DeRosato sign with the Nats and be our super utility guy. Can’t argue with the move; he fills a need, is willing to be a bench player, and can play a bunch of positions.

Obviously the big news this cycle is the Gio Gonzalez move. Frequent readers here saw a very healthy discussion in the past week in this space. I’ll post some reaction links here not posted elsewhere: Buster Olney‘s blog (the take away for me is how badly Oakland’s fans seem to be reacting), Jim Bowden‘s video reaction and his description how the deal went down (the interesting takeaway being how the 2nd player thrown into the deal from Oakland’s side turning the tide). Keith Law values our prospects highly and says we overpaid. Another prospect-heavy analyst John Sickelsanalyzes our outgoing prospects (surprisingly Sickels says the A’s got “fair value” instead of calling it a loss for the Nats as Law did). Here’s Tim Brown‘s reaction, plus Ken Rosenthal‘s original report. Lastly, fangraph’s David Fung graphically analyzes projected WARs and determines that we gave up nearly twice the value in future production, which involves quite a leap of trust that all four of these guys pan out to their potential. Lastly, here’s Baseball Prospectus’ take on both sides; not nearly as glowing for the 4 prospects gained as I thought they would be.

Free Agents/Player Transaction News

Roy Oswalt is considering one-year deals, immediately bringing nearly every MLB team into the discussions. I’d love to have him on the Nats but suspect that he may end up in a situation that makes it easier for him to get one more relatively lucrative FA contract. I.e., an easier division that’s closer to home. Imagine him in San Diego against weaker NL west teams. With the Gonzalez signing though, my guess is that we’re out of the FA pitcher race.

Interesting take on the Yu Darvish bidding results and the Toronto loss from Buster Olney (insider only), intimating that all the talk about the Toronto interest was overblown.

Great points by David Schoenfeld on espn, pointing out another similar article on Grantland, talking about the “Prospect Mania” that has become the norm in baseball over the past 10 years. Ironically, this same issue was seen in our Gonzalez deal; are our prospects really that good, or are we over-valuing them and their potential?

General Baseball News

College Baseball Newspaper announces its pre-season Collegiate All American team. From first glance, Florida looks really strong (4 guys on the first team, another four on the 2nd team, wow). South Carolina returns two all-american starters, virtually guaranteeing weekend series wins all year. Finally Texas has 2 first team, 3 second teamers just in its rotation. Too early to predict Florida versus Texas in the Omaha final in June 2012?

George Washington, a lesser Div-1 baseball program that has given the Nats some later-round org players in recent years, is renovating Barcroft park in South Arlington, where they play their home games. They’re putting in artificial turf, nicer facilities and a nicer snack bar. Nice. It was already a nice place to see good collegiate baseball; now it should be this much better.

Documentation/Actual testimony from a player who won an appeal of his PED positive test. Latest rumor I read about Ryan Braun is that he was taking something for an STD. I can’t find a link so perhaps its just that; a ridiculous rumor.

Man, I can’t wait to see this soap opera in Spring Training; former Marlins manager says that Hanley Ramirezwon’t go to third easily.

Nice shirt, Mike Napoli. (NSFW, in other words, “Not Safe for Work.”) Not really; you can barely see the “R-rated” part.

I wonder why they left the field? A current picture of Detroit’s old stadium. We were in Detroit 3yrs ago and drove by this stadium as it was only in partial de-construction.

LA Dodger’s plans to sell dealt a blow by a bankrupcy judge. Or were they? I’m not entirely clear how this ruling affects anything frankly. As long as Frank McCourt is removed from the picture, I think everyone will be happy.

General News; other

Categorize this in the “people who don’t have a sense of humor, ever” department: Pat Robertson found the hilarious Tim Tebow skit on SNL last weekend “disgusting.” Hey Pat; I find your opinions on race, discrimination, acceptance, tolerance, and your stated stances on the reasons that Hurricane Katrina, the Haitian earthquake and 9-11 happened to be “disgusting” as well.

This link was ironic for me, in that my family just had the same discussion about what is the best Xmas movie of all time. Jim Caple presents a 64-team bracket for Xmas movies. I think the selection committee screwed over “Scrooged,” giving it only a 9 seed. In another bracket, its a regional winner :-).

Here’s Tom Boswell‘s latest column about the Nats. The more I read it, the more irritated I get with his stance. Maybe it was a column designed to get a reaction of of people. If so maybe I’m just a sucker for reacting (and writing this blog post). So be it; in a town with so little Nats press coverage, those stories that do get printed have that much more import to the general public. And I don’t want the general public feeding off of a crap story like this to get their impression about the team, where it stands, and where its going.

As far as I can tell, Boswell is taking the tired stance that “The Lerner’s are cheap” since they havn’t accomplished what they’ve laid out to accomplish this off-season (namely, obtain a Center Fielder and a Starting Pitcher).

Here’s the gist of one quote that I can’t get over:

If you want to know why it’s almost Christmas and the Nats haven’t signed Mark Buehrle, Roy Oswalt or Edwin Jackson, why they haven’t bid on Yu Darvish or Yoenis Cespedes, why they haven’t been within a zillion miles of C.J. Wilson, Jose Reyes or Prince Fielder, and especially why they haven’t made a prospects-for-a-star trade such as the Reds for ace Mat Latos, it’s probably because ownership is tensing up, tightening the leash again.

Wow. Well there’s an awful lot of assumptions in here. Player by player:

Mark Buehrle: the team DID make an offer to him, and came in 2nd. The Marlins, who suddenly are spending money without abandon, guaranteed a 4th year and a TON of money to sign him. Was Buehrle the answer? Was he worth 4 years at $14.5M in average annual value (AAV) per year? To say nothing of the fact that Miami heavily back loaded the contract so that Buehrle will be getting an asounding $19M in 2016, when he’s scheduled to be a soft-tossing lefty turning 36 years old. I’m sorry; its a bad contract and you cannot fault the Nats for not wanting to extend that much money on a guy who is no better than a #3 starter in this league.

Roy Oswalt: last time I checked, Oswalt hasn’t signed. You can’t MAKE a player sign a contract! Why is it the Nats fault that Oswalt likely is on vacation with his family and hasn’t signed a 2012 contract yet? In fact he specifically said that he was waiting for the markets for both Wilson and Buehrle to clear before he even considered what he was going to do.

Edwin Jackson: Boras client. Boras clients wait til the last minute to “create the market.” Nobody’s heard a peep out of Boras’ camp yet. Again, how is it the Nat’s fault that Jackson hasn’t signed yet??

Yu Darvish: $51M in posting fee and then reportedly wants a $75M contract. Darvish isn’t Cliff Lee or CC Sabathia, and those are the only two pitchers with contracts in the 5yr/$120M range. Is Darvish the same as Lee or Sabathia? Not even close. He’s a good prospect who has yet to throw a MLB pitch and who may or may not ever live up to his billing. No other Japanese pitcher has lived up to his billing, so the track record isn’t rosy. There’s taking risks, and then there’s taking ridiculous, franchise altering risks that set you back for 5 years. I will not fault the team for staying out of the Darvish negotiations.

Yoenis Cespedes hasn’t even established DR residency, so he’s not even an official free agent yet!! How can you fault the team for not pursuing him if he’s not even eligible to sign?? Not to mention the fact that he’s a complete raw talent that needs probably a year and a half of minor league time and couldn’t help us in 2012?

CJ Wilson was a #2 pitcher who laid a massive egg in the playoffs and signed a lucrative deal to play for his home town team. What makes you think he was even considering coming to Washington?

Jose Reyes was another bad signing by Miami, giving a ton of money to a clubhouse malcontent, injury risk short stop who only produced when it was his contract year. Why even mention Reyes if he’s not a pitcher or a center fielder, in the context of this article?

Prince Fielder; again, hasn’t signed yet. Boras client. Not the Nats fault. Maybe Rizzo has spent hours and hours on the phone with Boras and we don’t know. I don’t have a phone tap into the Nats front office, does Boswell? Lets not criticize moves (or lack of them) until they ACTUALLY OCCUR.

Mat Latos-like deal: well, i’m kinda glad we havn’t made a Latos deal since I thought that deal was incredibly bad for Cincinnati. They gave up one starter, two close-to-the-majors first rounders AND a 4th decent prospect for a guy who I wouldn’t even say is in the best 50 pitchers in the game. If Rizzo mades this trade and gave away the kind of talent that Cincinnati did, there’d be a massive uproar.

there was such a lack of starting pitcher FA depth that those candidates out there were ALWAYS going to get bid up ridiculously. Its simple economics; lack of supply means a lot of demand. And, if you’re building a team FOR THE LONG TERM you don’t hamstring yourself trying to chase in the short term.

There’s even fewer legitimate CF targets out there, either in trade or in the FA market. There’s perhaps 10-12 legitimate CFs in the league who provide plus offense AND plus defense. You’re not going to just “trade for” one of these guys.

So, any deal to fill either spot isn’t going to happen overnight.

Here’s another quote I take issue with:

When are they going to stop trying to build a suspension bridge with the minimum amount of steel and then, as happened in 2008 and ’09, act shocked if it collapses? After one 80-81 third-place year, have they forgotten the pain?

Who says that they are? Last time I checked this team hired Rizzo in 2009, then formulated a plan, and the team has in the last two years improved 10 games each year in the win column while building a top-10 farm system. How can you accuse the team of going off the rails of its own plan just by virtue of the fact that a couple of potential FA targets signed elsewhere in a seller’s market??

Boswell uses phrases in this article such as “All the signs are there,” and “Its probably because…” and “the Nats could end up” and “Its what I suspect is happening.” EVERY one of those phrases is Boswell conjecture. He has no idea what’s really going to happen.

Really? They’ve done “nothing” except that signing? So all that work scouting players, negotiating with Buehrle, and talking trades was “nothing.” To say nothing of the fact that Cameron, while a minor deal, was a necessary one. This team has NO backup outfielders right now. Just as they have almost no utility infielders. So while CF and a SP were the #1 and #1a off-season priorities, there are other holes to fill.

One more hypocritical quote:

In baseball, no pitfall is more common than becoming infatuated with your own young, unproven, inexpensive players. For example, you look at Ross Detwiler, Brad Peacock and Tommy Milone and figure one of them most likely will become a 100-game winner. Sorry, tilt! Not how it works. They’re nice prospects. But odds are that none ever has a 15-win season. Buehrle and Oswalt already have won 161 and 159 games, respectively — and each may win 50 more.

Oh, so we can’t count on Detwiler, Peacock or Milone (total combined 2012 salary: around $1.2M) but WE SHOULD be throwing upwards of $120M on Yu Darvish!? Because he’s so proven at the major league level? Why isn’t Darvish “just another nice prospect” as well? Wouldn’t you rather see if Brad Peacock is just as good a right handed starter as Darvish at 1/100th of the cost? I would. Especially considering that for that money saved you could end up with somone as good as Darvish AND the next big FA slugger. That’s why you develop prospects, and that’s why you let them play. If instead this is an argument about why we should be getting Oswalt, well see above; Oswalt hasn’t signed yet!

Boswell’s over-riding point seems to be that the Nats need to be spending the anticipated $30M revenue bump they anticipate getting from the new MASN TV contract, now. That’s fair, certainly. But lets not print such a wildly accusatory article when its DECEMBER and half our possible targets are actually still out there. The team may actually still be spending that money! Not to mention the dozens of trade possibilities that nobody’s even considering since, you know, we’re not Mike Rizzo and don’t know what he’s actually considering or talking about with other GMs. We have no idea what’s going to happen tomorrow. Tomorrow this team may sign Fielder, Oswalt AND Cespedes and suddenly Rizzo and Lerner are the heros.

Until tomorrow happens though, printing this kind of reactionary crap is just that. Crap.

Nationals have more cash coming in, but refuse to spend it

Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post – After making the Nationals respectable in two seasons, General Manager Mike Rizzo said the team was a player or two away from contention. But it seems ownership has not opened the purse strings to sign any significant players.

The Washington Nationals never really seem to learn. Or, rather, the Lerners don’t. As soon as you think they start to get it, they backslide again.

When are the Nats going to be allowed to be good? When will they get to build a winner with a roster that has a sensible margin of safety, rather than constructing a team that can succeed only in a best-case world?

When are they going to stop trying to build a suspension bridge with the minimum amount of steel and then, as happened in 2008 and ’09, act shocked if it collapses? After one 80-81 third-place year, have they forgotten the pain?

It’s happening again. All the signs are there. The Nats’ baseball people lay out clearly what they want to achieve in the offseason. None of it is terribly difficult. But there is risk and expense. Then, as the offseason unfolds, nothing happens.

Was Jayson Werth just the exception that proves the rule? Even his signing only nudged the Nats’ 2011 payroll over its ’05 level, when the team was an MLB chattel. Is what we’re seeing, again, really the distressing norm?

“We’re busy. We’re trying to be aggressive but broad-minded, we’re working behind the scenes,” General Manager Mike Rizzo said on Wednesday, adding that the Nats were working on “bench options.” Bench options? Pine or oak?

If you want to know why it’s almost Christmas and the Nats haven’t signed Mark Buehrle, Roy Oswalt or Edwin Jackson, why they haven’t bid on Yu Darvish or Yoenis Cespedes, why they haven’t been within a zillion miles of C.J. Wilson, Jose Reyes or Prince Fielder, and especially why they haven’t made a prospects-for-a-star trade such as the Reds for ace Mat Latos, it’s probably because ownership is tensing up, tightening the leash again.

Here’s Tom Boswell‘ weekly Monday chat on 12/19/11. Of the baseball questions he took, here’s how I’d have answered them. With a Redskins unexpected win, I’d think this will be heavy on football, but I thought the same about last week as well. There were a TON of baseball questions. Maybe the town is tiring of Redskins coverage, now that they’re eliminated from the playoffs.

As always, questions are edited for clarity and I write my own answer prior to reading his.

Q: Have you heard anything about the possibility of Da Meathook (Dmitri Young) returning to the Nats to be a role player and mentor?

A: No chance. Dmitri Young was a Jim Bowden reclamation project and no matter how that story may play in the “feel good” category, Rizzo has gone to great pains to rid most of this roster of Bowden players. It is good to see Young losing weight and looking better though. Boswell says little chance, that Young really is a DH/PH now and we’re in the wrong league.

Q: Should the Nats consider Carlos Beltran?

A: Again, hard to see. Beltran was decent in 2011, his first healthy season since 2008. Ironic that it happened in his walk year. But he’s already been moved out of CF, and was not really that good defensively in RF. He’ll want a longer term deal … but we have a certain upper-end RF prospect named Harper coming up who would be blocked. Beltran makes no sense for us. Boswell says no chance, then opines on the lack of movement out of the Nats front office.

Q: What do you make of the Nats (non) moves? Are the Lerners still “cheap?”

A: It was always going to be a weak FA market, and with the Marlins suddenly throwing ridiculous money around and outbidding the team for its targets, it does look as if the team isn’t doing much. The price of #1/#2 starters has just gotten out of control this off-season (see the unbelievable haul that a low-end #1 guy in Mat Latos just got), so I sense the team is re-evaluating. Boswell says you can’t be “cheap” after signing a guy to $126M contract.

Q: Does Rizzo deserve an F for the off-season so far? Missed out on Buerle and no CF either.

A: Man, people are impatient. Maybe the team underbid on Buehrle, but they were NEVER going to go 4yrs and $56M dollars on the guy. I’m sorry; he’s a #3 pitcher, a soft-tossing lefty who never gets hurt. That’s NOT an ace, that’s not worth $13M a year. As for CF, there’s no good FAs out there, so it was always going to be a trade. Last time i checked its only December and the off-season is only half-way done. I’d rather stand pat than make a panic buy. Boswell says Rizzo needs to be judged 5 years down the road on his 2011 draft signings.

Q: Have we seen the last off-season addition?

A: I don’t think so, but the likelihood of seeing a “major” acquisition now seems thin. It is what it is; 2012’s FA crop was weak and everyone got bid up. Notice how the Yankees and Red Sox didn’t get anyone either, and BOTH those teams desperately need starting pitching. Boswell takes his third question on the same topic and just says that if the team hits better they’ll be better next year. duh

Q: Do you think Endy Chavez could be a decent short-term filler for the Nats in centerfield, or maybe resigning Rick Ankiel, who played pretty well turing the final two months of last season?

A: Well, its too late for Chavez, who signed a deal over the weekend with Baltimore. I wouldn’t be opposed to re-signing Ankiel but ONLY as a 4th outfielder. Boswell agrees.

Q: Who’s going to spend the most time in center for the Nats this year? 1. Werth, 2.Cespedes, 3. Ankiel (if he returns), 4. Bernadina (ugh) or 5. someone else?

A: I’ll go with Werth first, but say “someone else” if Rizzo makes his desired trade. Holding out hope for Upton or Bourjos or someone like that. Boswell exactly writes what I wrote.

Q: If the Nats are able to sign or trade for a CFer and they bring up Bryce Harper during the season, does Adam LaRoche become the odd man out this season?

A: If Nats get a CFer, then yes eventually it will come down to either Morse or LaRoche making way. As of now, its hard to see Morse leaving, but you never know in this game. Morse could break a leg and LaRoche could come back 110% in his walk year, and in June we’ll be singing a different tune. Boswell thinks LaRoche is mr. comeback in 2012 and will “make the team glad they have a club option.” Wow, that’s a statement.

Q: Should the Nats really wait til NEXT off-season to hit the FA market?

A: Yes. Yes. Yes. The 2013 FA pool is so much better than this years, that it almost doesn’t make sense to compete and over-pay. As a longer term fan of this team, I would support and argue for such a move. Play the kids in 2012 and figure out what you have, then go on a spending spree to make a pennant-contender in 2013. Boswell says this is exactly what Davey Johnson is advocating.

Q: What are the odds that the Nats do right by the fans and sign Zimm to a Tulo type deal before Spring Training? After watching the Pujols intro in LA, if we have to endure a similar scene w/ Ryan I plan on marching to Nats Park and burn my jersey at the main gate.

A: Lots of repeat questions today. This question was the Question #1 from last week’s boswell Chat. Short answer; Nats don’t pursue long term deal with Zimmerman til after next season. Boswell changes his stance from last week and says the team MUST get it done before the 2012 all-star break. Why? Still disagree here.

Q: Is the reluctance to sign Fielder just about money? He is clearly an upgrade over LaRoche at the plate and would instantly upgrade the offense.

A: I’d be reluctant for several reasons. Money (its a lot), wasted money (on LaRoche), his conditioning (abhorrent for an athlete) and his defensive inadequacies. He does mash though. Boswell likes Laroche, says Morse is a good 1B as well, and doesn’t advocate spending $200M on one position.

Q: Remember the knock on Mike Rizzo was that he would have trouble with some of the non-baseball aspects of a GM job (i.e. media)? We’re a few years in and while the Nats are greatly improved, I’m skeptical of Rizzo. He seems like he’s playing out of position — strong on scouting, not so much on other stuff. Does it even matter given the ownership?

A: I still think Rizzo was partly responsible for the Riggleman situation, and should have done a better “people management” job than he did. But otherwise I don’t have an issue with Rizzo’s performance. The team has completely turned around in just 2 years under his command; what else do you want out of a GM? 3 great drafts, a 20game improvement on the field? Are we getting spoiled here? Boswell agrees, and says that the Werth contract still weighs on him.

Q: Thoughts on the Mat Latos trade? Seems the cost of quality SP is especially high this year—whether you’re Roy Oswalt or the ChiSox looking to trade Danks, the Nats are going to have to spend or give up real value to add that piece to their rotation. Any new developments?

A: The Latos deal is shocking; he’s not exactly a Cy Young candidate in my mind; just a very good, young pitcher. The Reds gave up two developed #1 draft picks (including a very quick to the majors guy in Yonder Alonso), plus an established (albeit injured) Volquez and another guy for Latos. That’s a really expensive trade. Latos better work. How does that affect the Nats? It probably scares the crap out of them. Boswell quotes Jim Bowden’s analysis (?!) and says the Padres may have swindled the Reds here.

Q: Would you be interested in Adam Jones if you were the Nats and who would you be willing to give up?

A: Jones is an interesting candidate. Good bat but not the best in the field. I didn’t even consider him a trade candidate in my CF analysis piece but maybe he is. O’s need pitching, so maybe there’s a fit there. But, the O’s may not have a ready-made replacement for Jones, who is 25 and still under club control for 2 more years. So he won’t be cheap. I’d give up a Detwiler or a Milone but not much more. Boswell agrees with the trade needs, but says Angelos would never trade with Washington on the off-chance that the Nats looked like they “took” him in a deal.

Q: It’s Opening Day 2012 in DC. Sellout crowd, beautiful weather. Perfect day for baseball. Who’s playing CF for the Nats, & who’s hitting leadoff. For that matter, since I’ve asked you to consult your crystal ball, what’s the pitching rotation?

A: Another repeat question. Your CF is Werth, with a yet-to-be named 1-yr FA playing in RF. Rotation is Stras-Zimmerman-Lannan-Wang-Detwiler. Leadoff is (still) Desmond, because the team hasn’t done anything to replace him. But i’m still holding out hope that the team a) signs Oswalt and b) trades for Upton. So we’ll see. Boswell thinks Harper’s making the opening day roster, and Milone is #5 starter. I wouldn’t be surprised.